Hotaru: Mikan's Best friend?
by piggy.piggy.love
Summary: Hotaru has a weird friendship with Mikan, we THINK her attitude towards Mikan is out of love, but is it really? RxMxN
1. Hotaru's Plan

Hotaru Imai sighed.

There she was, sitting at her seat, trying hard to block out all the noises of her the idiots around her, attempting to focus on her latest invention. It was bearable, until a loud screech penetrated her personal space, followed by the undeniable smell of burned hair. Somehow, she just knew that this involved her best friend, Mikan Sakura, and that somehow she would be dragged into it.

Hotaru blinked twice, contemplating whether she should find out where the smell came from, but then decided against it and resumed her project, twiddling efficiently with her screwdriver.

"Please leave me in peace, stupidity is contagious" Hotaru thought.

Just as she was about to put in the finishing and most important touches to her latest masterpiece, as she was brimming with excitement about the money that she would earn when she would place her invention on sale, something crashed into her and tossed her nuts and bolts all over the desk top. Hotaru was irritated. VERY irritated.

Hotaru turned to look at the culprit, who had destroyed her peace, to find that the 'thing' that had crashed into her was Mikan, her hair visibly singed and all over the place, tears running down her face. Hotaru put down her screwdriver, and turned around in the direction that she knew where he was.

You know, him. The infamous Natsume Hyuuga. The only person who would have been able to cause all this drama, due to the fact that a) he had a fire Alice, and b) he was a sadist and particularly enjoyed torturing Mikan. They barely spoke to each other, and both silently agreed that Mikan was a moron who liked butting into things that were none of her business, and getting herself (and sometimes others) into trouble. It was also the reason why they both cared about Mikan.

"Hyuuga," Hotaru said monotonously, "take your little 'game' and this moron elsewhere, and leave me in peace. Time is money, and you are costing my time."

"Bu.. But… HOTARUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU," a tearful Mikan shrieked, "he's horrible! All I did was ask everybody whether they wanted to go to the pool in Central Town during the weekend, and he shut down my suggestion and said that only an idiot could come up with such an idiotic request! But it's HOT!"

Hotaru squinted ever so slightly, and turned to look at Natsume, realizing his intentions. Ruka Nogi was next to him, his expression stiff yet somewhat worried. Ruka knew why his best friend didn't want the class to go to the pool, and agreed with himself that he didn't really like the idea of the entire class, not to mention probably the whole of Central Town, all looking at Mikan bouncing around in her swimsuit.

Natsume looked straight at Hotaru, his face expressionless. Hotaru smiled a tiny smile, and she knew exactly what was going through his mind. Yes, she decided, she was going to make him suffer, and at the same time, engage in an activity that was DEFINITELY worth her time.

"Mikan. Let's go to Central Town," Hotaru stated, staring straight at Natsume. Mikan's face glowed, still with tear streaks down her face, completely forgetting about the ordeal that had happened minutes ago, and very excited because she was imagining holding hands with Hotaru while swimming in the pool.

Half an hour later, the class bounced onto the bus directed for Central Town, and Natsume and Ruka, at the back of the line, grimaced silently. Natsume, in particular, twitched, annoyed that he could even be dragged into such a stupid outing.

"Ruka-pyon!" Mikan twirled around before jumping onto the bus herself, "Hurry!" She ran towards Ruka and grabbed his hand, leading him towards the bus. At the same time, she poked out her tongue at Natsume. As they went up the bus stairs, hand in hand, Natsume frowned angrily and glared at their backs. He looked at the bus and saw Hotaru seated a few rows behind the driver, and smiling at him.

"Evil manipulator," Natsume cursed while getting onto the bus himself. Hotaru's smile widened.

As the bus took off, Koko couldn't help but read the thought that was emanating from the raven-haired girl sitting in front of him: "This will be fun."

Koko shuddered. He was hoping that he wasn't part of Imai's plan.


	2. Hotaru's Mistake

_Disclaimer: All characters and original story are all property of Tachibana Higuchi. No rights infringement intended. It is but a way to show love to the story that she created._

The class brimmed with excitement as the bus drew closer to Central Town. Mikan was practically falling off her seat, and as each second passed by, Hotaru got closer and closer to pulling out her Baka gun to take aim at the now irritating girl (or was it always irritating? Hotaru wasn't very sure at that particular moment) sitting next to her.

In what seemed like forever, the bus had finally reached its destination. Hotaru was quite relieved, as she was starting to doubt why she had ever made such an offer to Mikan in the first place. Getting off the stuffy bus, Hotaru breathed in a lungful of fresh air, thankful to be away from her noisy classmates, only to be dragged off by Mikan who was dragging Tobita along in her other hand.

Hotaru sighed. 'All for the prize,' she thought, 'all for the prize…' She was imagining the money she would earn after today, and was hoping that the day would play out like she hoped it would. Quickly, she turned around to check that Natsume and Ruka were still following the group. After confirming this, she felt a little bit better, and allowed Mikan to cling onto her for a little while longer.

It was half an hour later when the class had finally gotten themselves organized and was filing out onto the swimming pool deck.

Mikan bounded out in her swimwear, complete with swimming cap and tube, and, as usual, wasn't watching where she was going.

SMACK

Mikan's head was in pain. Her eyes dizzy, she looked up to see what, or who, she had bumped into when…

"TSUBASA-SENPAAAAAAAAAAAI! MISAKI-SENPAAAAAAAAAI! TONO-SENPAAAAAAI! EVERYONE!"

… She realized when her friends from the Special Abilities class were also on a visit to the pool.

"Shorty!" Tsubasa grinned a dazzling smile, "we went to find you, but class B was empty! But you're already here!"

Mikan was so happy that her favorite senpai was here that she instantly forgot her classmates, and went off with the Special Abilities, being carried on Tonouchi's back.

Hotaru walked out of the change rooms, and surveyed her surroundings. There, on a deck chair, was Sumire Shouda, surrounded by a group of people, and showing off her newest swimsuit. Anna and Nonoko were happily splashing in the pool, and Tobita was smiling as usual.

Then she realized that something was missing: there were no over-excited squeals, or super loud babbling. No Mikan. Looking around again, she saw that Natsume was nowhere to be found. Neither was Ruka.

Hotaru knew that Mikan had come out of the change rooms before her, as Mikan had told her that she was heading out early, clearly unable to contain the excitement of swimming with her classmates. Curious to find out what kind of drama was playing out, and more importantly where the drama was located, Hotaru searched the area once again.

Nothing.

Hotaru was getting annoyed. This day was turning out to be more difficult than she had imagined. She was now kind of hoping that she had remained in the classroom and completed that invention after all. For all she knew, she could be rolling in money by now.

Hotaru squinted at her last hope towards a group of people, mainly consisting teenagers, off in the distance. Then she heard it, a loud, high-pitched laugh (or squeal of excitement) that unmistakably belonged to Mikan. She realized that Mikan must have found Tsubasa and the others.

Walking towards the group of people, Hotaru happened to walk past Natsume and Ruka who were hanging out under a deck umbrella. She paused for a moment, only to smile at the pair smugly, and then turned and continued her walk towards Mikan. In the corner of her eye, she saw Natsume and Ruka realize where she was walking towards, and followed her quietly.

As she got closer towards the noisy bunch, she saw that Mikan was giggling, engaging in an intense water fight slash tickling war with Tsubasa and Tono, while Misaki and the others smiled and contributed to the fight by splashing water at Mikan.

Hotaru turned her head ever so slightly, just to check that Natsume and Ruka were still with her. Her smile widening ever so slightly, she could swear that the temperature had risen. Natsume and Ruka were both not amused by the scene playing out in front of them, and all of a sudden, they weren't there any more, but had moved towards the water.

Without realizing what was going on, Hotaru saw that Natsume had somehow managed to slap Tsubasa and Tono in the head with one shot, and as a result sent Mikan flying unexpectedly into the water.

Ruka, sensing the possibility of danger, went off towards the splash that Mikan had created. Natsume was glaring dangerously at Tsubasa and Tono, who were both still cowering with pain from their hit in the head.

'This is the moment,' Hotaru thought, and turned to rummage in her invisible bag to find her trusty camera. She could not miss a precious photo moment of Ruka saving Mikan, or that of Natsume with a particularly ticked-off facial expression that had not been caused out of annoyance from the school or from Persona. Seconds later, she realized that her camera was nowhere to be found.

No way. Hotaru? Without a camera? This could not be possible.

Hotaru began to rummage frantically, and then had a flashback of when she was getting ready to go to the pool. She realized that she made an amateur's mistake: she had left her camera on her bedside table when she had realized that she forgot to pack her moron bug spray.

Hotaru was annoyed.


End file.
